Stainless steel is ubiquitous in commercial kitchens, home kitchens, office buildings, airports, and various other public spaces. The majority of cleaning products designed for use on stainless steel surfaces are both cleaners and polishers (including mixtures of mineral oil and water, or solvent and mineral oil). The oil in these products helps hide fingerprints by blending/covering them with the applied mineral oil. The oily layer provides the substrate a shiny appearance.
Stainless steel products that utilize this clean and polish approach typically suffer from many drawbacks, including: streaking (e.g., it is difficult to get a streak-free shine); difficult to “spot clean” a portion of the surface (e.g., users typically have to clean an entire area to maintain a uniform oil layer); the product dries slowly, and the appearance changes during drying; attraction to dirt (e.g., oiled surfaces collect lint and dust easily); oil build-up (e.g., mineral oil left on surfaces can accumulate and is difficult to remove); and the inability to cut tough stains commonly found in restrooms.
Thus, there is a need for compositions that can coat, and more particularly protect, and optionally clean and protect, stainless steel surfaces, and other metallic surfaces.